The Chinook Factor
Countries with fairly large percentage of their population living in mainly inaccessible terrain find that recourse to aviation is a must, not only during times of natural disasters, but also for good governance, law enforcement and critical logistics requirement. One can get away with fixed use of wing aircraft in deserts and forests, in mountainous territory there is almost no alternative to rotary wing aircraft. The purchase cost/maintenance of helicopters being exponentially higher than fixed wing aircraft, saving of precious lives in a critical time period must overcome qualms about the high costs associated. Praying that disasters come few and far between, one has to plan for the worst.
Contrary to perceptions that the Army did not react quickly enough to the Oct 8 disaster, how come Army Aviation helicopters lifted over 600 injured to hospitals in Islamabad-Rawalpindi area and over a 100 to CMH Murree by 4 pm on Oct 8 only? This wrong perception was due to the fact that the heavy-lift M1-17s of Army Aviation’s helicopter fleet remained woefully short in numbers required for coping with the magnitude of the crisis. The heliborne relief effort remained under pressure for the first 10 days or so till the US Army’s Chinooks from Afghanistan joined in, the Chinooks (alongwith the Army’s M-17s) bore the immediate brunt of the visible immediate relief effort for the earthquake-affected in NWFP and AK, the “thump-thump” of the double rotors a welcome sound of approaching succour for the stricken populace. The two dozen or so Chinooks created good vibes, firing not only the imagination of the stricken populace but doing far more for image restoration (and enhancement thereof) for Americans in the eyes of the masses than the quantum of generous American aid during the earthquake, indeed over the years. Some disgruntled clerics trying to whip up anti-American sentiment in the affected areas were booed down, the “Chinook Factor” coming into play. During the Vietnam War, the USAF version (CH-3E) of US Navy’s Sikorsky S-61, rescued many downed pilots who looked anxiously at the skies for “the jolly green giants”, as they were named. The Chinooks can be equated as the earthquake-relief version of “the jolly green giants”.
Having flown an Alouette-3 helicopter extensively in the earthquake-affected areas in 1969 and 1970, it was a traumatic shock to see bare mountains (the timber-mafia in action) where once we used to search for open areas among the thickly wooded trees to land our helicopter. With the sides of the mountains unstable how some of the roads are going to be re-built is beyond me! Urban population centers may have grown rapidly due to expatriate Pakistani affluence, physical communications are still tenuous at best. Except for the Aga Khan Foundation bringing in helicopters to support their Rural Support Program in Gilgit, Hunza, etc, there has been no inclination to invest in and/or maintain an aviation fleet of any consequence. This situation must be changed immediately.
For both good governance and immediate relief heliborne-mobility is badly needed. Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan may primarily depend upon fixed wing aircraft but for NWFP, Azad Kashmir and Northern areas, helicopters must be a major part of the solution. The cost of helicopter flying hour is about 7-8 times less than that of comparable fixed wing aircraft. Economy of use dictates that VIPs use small fixed wing aircraft wherever and whenever possible, tendency being to use helicopters as gilded taxis or limousines. Similarly STOL aircraft can be used for larger delegations or shifting small volumes of cargo from airstrip to airstrip instead of wasting far more expensive helicopter hours. Keeping in mind the overall need, we must have at least three heavy-lift squadrons at the Federal level (i.e. at least 45-50 helicopters capable of lifting 200-300 tons of relief supplies at any one time). We need to permanently place a minimum of 2 light and 4 heavy-Lift helicopters each at Gilgit and Skardu (Northern Areas) and Muzaffarabad (Azad Kashmir). Azad Kashmir and NWFP can each do with 2 small fixed wing aircraft, NWFP requiring further 2 Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) cargo/passenger aircraft, 2 x light helicopters and 4 heavy lift helicopters. Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan should each have 2 small fixed wing aircraft, 2 STOL cargo/passenger aircraft and 2 heavy lift helicopters. Not only for competitive procurement but for ease of maintenance, standardization is a must. Distances from Islamabad require Sindh and Balochistan each to maintain an executive twin-engine fixed wing aircraft for their Governors/CMs. Punjab has extensive land area and can also do with one such aircraft. This would mean, give or take, a total of 3 executive twin-engine aircraft, 10 small fixed wing (4-5 seaters), 8 STOL aircraft, 12 light helicopters (6-7 seaters) and 50 heavy-lift helicopters (the 18 required by the Provinces, AK and Northern areas should be on deputation from the Federal Heavy-Lift Squadrons maintained by the Army Aviation). The evaluation and assessment being technical in nature in contrast to normal procurements, purchase of aircraft should be deputed to any of the Procurement agencies of the Armed Forces, they have the know-how. There would also be far less chances of corruption.
New aircraft need not be purchased, refurbished aircraft are much cheaper than new ones and just as good. For light fixed wing aircraft, one would choose something from the Cessna family (a tail wing Cessna-185 can easily seat six). Having flown Cessna 150, 172, 185, 188 (the Agtruck), the twin-engined 310 and the “push-pull” 337, one develops a lot of confidence in the “Continental” engine. Having flown nearly 1000 hours in Alouette-3 in a very short, intense period of time (albeit nearly 3 decades ago), there is still no comparable cost-effective aircraft of its class anywhere in the world. With the Artouste 3-B Engine the pilot always has extra power, even with the dust filters. As for STOL cargo/passenger aircraft the “Pilatus Porter” is a tested aircraft as is the “Twin Otter”. For heavy lift helicopters the Chinook would be an automatic first choice, but we could probably not afford it and would have to go for the M1-17s i.e. unless the US gives us these under AID and/or under grant. The Chinook (Boeing CH-47) is expensive to purchase and maintain but is very cost effective. About 800 are in service, mostly in the military mission mode. Carrying nearly 13 tons, it has the lowest cost per ton mile that any other helicopter in this category. The Russian M1-8 (now M1-17), with 12000 in service, is an excellent workhorse, far less expensive when compared to the Chinook but can carry only a maximum of 4 tons i.e. having to do 3 trips for every one the Chinook takes. Since wear and tear is far more pronounced on helicopters, the number of trips would force-multiply the physical degradation, making the Chinooks worth their weight in gold during a disaster.
Aviation purchases require careful evaluation, e.g. the recent controversy over the proposed purchase of 2 refurbished Alouette-3 (and not Alouette-2 as a recent article has suggested) helicopters by the NWFP Government for use by the Governor and Chief Minister. The cost of running an Alouette-3 would come to about US$ 1500 per flying hour when including salaries, fuel, maintenance and depreciation (and not five times more US$ 7500 as the article has suggested). Wrong data can be very misleading for a gullible public, appearing in a magazine of repute it gives credibility to motivated exaggeration. Specialized subjects like aircraft purchase need hands-on experience or research of facts from credible sources.
While praying that we will not ever have to face the magnitude of the Oct 8 earthquake, we have to plan for the worst. Other than mountains and deserts, we have rivers that tend to overflow their banks every other year. Why not become aviation-minded and maximize “the Chinook factor” so as to have an inherent potential within the country for saving precious lives of our hapless citizens in times of need?
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